In this thread, I review Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards [Now reviewing Generation 7!]

Fj0823 · Jun 15, 2019

Cyberse Magician
Generation 6: VRAINS
Users: Yusaku Fujiki (a.k.a Playmaker)
Artwork:

The people demanded Rituals, so here's one more Ritual Monster!

During a duel against one of the minions for first real antagonists of the series,the LIGHT attribute Ignis AI, Yusaku faced against "Unknown", during the duel, Yusaku's Link monsters get continually cornered and countered. What will Yusaku ever do without his Link Monsters?...Well since this is the post Link backlash season 2, Yusaku finally remembers that there's more to this game than freaking Link Summon, and uses a brand new Link to set up a classic summoning method play, a ritual summon!

Yusaku's brand new Ritual is a level 7, DARK, Spellcaster-Type Ritual Monster, Cyberse Magician!

Artwise, this card is just Dark Magician but Tron, which as explained before during round 1, is my main issue with a lot of VRAINS cards, there's really nothing memorable about this card besides the fact that it makes you think of Tron, even it's staff looks pretty uninteresting as a weapon, I must say though, I really like this card's background, there's something about this computer simulation stuff that makes the monster pop and makes it look like he's coming out of a cyber portal, that coupled with a really cool "Freeze in the middle of the action" pose save this card's artwork for me, as even that generic design manages to look cool and filled with energy. I wouldn't say I "Like" it, but I can't bring myself to say this card's art is bad in anyway.Iit's just a lacking design.

For the game, As you can see from the clip, Yusaku uses a Link monster with the ability to set up ritual summons, "Cyberse Witch"

This card has the effect that whenever a monster is special summoned to a zone it points to, you can banish 1 spell card and fetch a ritual monster and a "Cynet Ritual" from your deck while also special summoning another monster from your grave, letting, this takes care of Ritual summoning's biggest shortcoming, the fact that you need several very specific cards in your hand and field to make it work. "Cyberse Witch" provides the Ritual, the Spell, and the fodder to set up your Ritual summon. And that's what makes "Cyberse Magician" viable.

Cyberse Magician himself must be ritual summoned with the spell "Cynet Ritual", which not only is searchable through Witch but it will also set up a Link summon after your Ritual monsters is destroyed, Magician has the ability to halve all types of damage you receive, Cyberse Magician will protect your monsters by attracting all attacks and targeting effects to himself as long as you have a Link monster on the field. Cyberse Magician will also gain 1000 attack when fighting against a Link monster and if he's destroyed he will let you search for 1 Cyberse-Type monster from your deck.

All in all, this card is not bad at all and for a while, was played in pure Cyberse builds, unfortunately there's no way around the fact that Ritual summoning requires way too much set up, so unless your deck is entirely dedicated to use Ritual Monsters, there's better options, even factoring the help of "Cyberse Witch", as Yusaku continued using old summoning methods, the popularity of this card began to decrease. It will be used on some Cyberse builds, but it's nothing that will light the world on fire.

Support for "Cynet Ritual" exists beyond witch, with another ritual monster that can be summoned with it, a reference to Kaiba´s "Paladin of White Dragon"

But it suffers the same fate of "Cyberse Magician" in that it's outclassed by other summoning methods.

TRIVIA TIME!

Cyberse Magician is the cover card for the expansion "Cybernetic Horizon".

And get this, it's the ONLY Ritual Monster in the franchise's history to be featured as the cover card of a core set expansion.

Next Up!

Farrac · Jun 16, 2019

Fj0823 said:
Cyberse Magician
Generation 6: VRAINS
Users: Yusaku Fujiki (a.k.a Playmaker)
Artwork:

The people demanded Rituals, so here's one more Ritual Monster!

During a duel against one of the minions for first real antagonists of the series,the LIGHT attribute Ignis AI, Yusaku faced against "Unknown", during the duel, Yusaku's Link monsters get continually cornered and countered. What will Yusaku ever do without his Link Monsters?...Well since this is the post Link backlash season 2, Yusaku finally remembers that there's more to this game than freaking Link Summon, and uses a brand new Link to set up a classic summoning method play, a ritual summon!

Yusaku's brand new Ritual is a level 7, DARK, Spellcaster-Type Ritual Monster, Cyberse Magician!

Artwise, this card is just Dark Magician but Tron, which as explained before during round 1, is my main issue with a lot of VRAINS cards, there's really nothing memorable about this card besides the fact that it makes you think of Tron, even it's staff looks pretty uninteresting as a weapon, I must say though, I really like this card's background, there's something about this computer simulation stuff that makes the monster pop and makes it look like he's coming out of a cyber portal, that coupled with a really cool "Freeze in the middle of the action" pose save this card's artwork for me, as even that generic design manages to look cool and filled with energy. I wouldn't say I "Like" it, but I can't bring myself to say this card's art is bad in anyway.Iit's just a lacking design.

For the game, As you can see from the clip, Yusaku uses a Link monster with the ability to set up ritual summons, "Cyberse Witch"

This card has the effect that whenever a monster is special summoned to a zone it points to, you can banish 1 spell card and fetch a ritual monster and a "Cynet Ritual" from your deck while also special summoning another monster from your grave, letting, this takes care of Ritual summoning's biggest shortcoming, the fact that you need several very specific cards in your hand and field to make it work. "Cyberse Witch" provides the Ritual, the Spell, and the fodder to set up your Ritual summon. And that's what makes "Cyberse Magician" viable.

Cyberse Magician himself must be ritual summoned with the spell "Cynet Ritual", which not only is searchable through Witch but it will also set up a Link summon after your Ritual monsters is destroyed, Magician has the ability to halve all types of damage you receive, Cyberse Magician will protect your monsters by attracting all attacks and targeting effects to himself as long as you have a Link monster on the field. Cyberse Magician will also gain 1000 attack when fighting against a Link monster and if he's destroyed he will let you search for 1 Cyberse-Type monster from your deck.

All in all, this card is not bad at all and for a while, was played in pure Cyberse builds, unfortunately there's no way around the fact that Ritual summoning requires way too much set up, so unless your deck is entirely dedicated to use Ritual Monsters, there's better options, even factoring the help of "Cyberse Witch", as Yusaku continued using old summoning methods, the popularity of this card began to decrease. It will be used on some Cyberse builds, but it's nothing that will light the world on fire.

Support for "Cynet Ritual" exists beyond witch, with another ritual monster that can be summoned with it, a reference to Kaiba´s "Paladin of White Dragon"

But it suffers the same fate of "Cyberse Magician" in that it's outclassed by other summoning methods.

TRIVIA TIME!

Cyberse Magician is the cover card for the expansion "Cybernetic Horizon".

And get this, it's the ONLY Ritual Monster in the franchise's history to be featured as the cover card of a core set expansion.

Next Up!

Oh, we doing the full round then? Cyberse Clock Dragon!

Voror · Jun 16, 2019

I'm guessing Time Wizard!

Aaronrules380 · Jun 16, 2019

Nah we're still on Gen 6 so it's Playmaker's fusion monster, Cyberse Clock Dragon

Fj0823 · Jun 16, 2019

Cyberse Clock Dragon
Generation 6: VRAINS
Users: Yusaku Fujiki (a.k.a Playmaker)
Artwork:

Not only was the backlash againt link monsters rendering the other Extra Deck summons obsolete very hot, but VRAINS season 1 wasn't doing too hot itself. Constant productions issues caused the series to resort to constant recap episodes and multiple apologies from the series's staff as they tried to find what story to tell. By VRAINS season 2, the story finally found a bit of a footing and Konami finally admited defeat against fans pushing for their favorite mechanics to come back to relevance (#BringBackExtraDeck anyone?). With the "Go ahead" and new card designs to allow the older summoning methods in the series, the staff could finally inject Yusaku's deck with a bit of variety.

During a duel against the mysterius cyber Bounty Hunter, "Blood Shpeherd" ,who is after the bounty for his head, The duel once again proves to be too much for Yusaku's Link monsters alone, so he once agains uses his Link Monsters to set up a new kind of play, the very first non-Link extra deck summon in the show...A Fusion Summon!

The result is a Level 7, DARK, Dragon-Type Fusion monster, Cyberse Clock Dragon!

I am REALLY getting tired of Dragons here, but at the very least, I can praise Clock Dragon for doing without the "Tron" aesthetic that plagues most of Yusaku's cards, the crystals motiff in it's body looks really cool, but it feels like a Dragon I've seen before in this franchise, this card is supposed to reference "Clock Rates" but there's nothing in the design that communicates the concept of the frequency at which a CPU is running, I guess there's some waves in it's tail if you squint and look for them that maybe kinda sorta reference a frequency, but other than that, I'm not seeing it, maybe it's because I'm not big on computer stuff, if any of you can find something, let me know, because otherwise this design is a bit of a letdown despite the cool crystal body. The electric shock background looks pretty nice and I feel the bright blue makes the dark armor pop.

As you can see in the clip, Yusaku once more uses a Link Monster with an effect that lets him speed up getting the necessary resources for a Fusion Summon, in this case, the Link is "Clock Spartoi"

Similar to what "Cyberse Witch" accomplishes for Fusions, Spartoi fetches the needed fusion spell "Cynet Fusion" as soon as it's link summoned, also Clock Spartoi will let you special summon a monster from the graveyard if another monster is summoned to a zone it points to, letting you fetch "Clock Wyvern" to set up the Fusion Summon.

Cyberse Clock Dragon is one step forward and two steps back, because it's going back to the times when a Fusion Monster had specific cards as materials for the fusion summon, in this case "Clock Wyvern" + 1 or more Link Monsters, forcing you to play the mediocre "Clock Wyvern" or a monster with the effect to substitute fusion materials in your deck should you ever want to summon this beast, which is not...great.

It''s effect is pretty much the same monster protection effect that "Cyberse Wizard" had, but this one also the option of milling cards up to the number of Link Arrows it's Link fusion materials had and gaining 1000 ATK for each card sent to the GY by this effect, this means that at the bare minimum, this card will hit the field at 3500 ATK, however, other monsters you control won't be able to attack...And that sucks. Look if the "Utopia" or "Galaxy-Eyes" cards from 2 Gens ago could go up to 5000 ATK withouth that big of a restriction, I'm not sure why this card needs to have when it's basically just a beatstick. I don't think this card is worth the investment, even if it protects your cards and gets high attack points, having to shove "Clock Wyvern" in your deck for deck when there's far better Cyberse monsters is a deal breaker for me. This card also has the ability to recover a spell card from your grave when it's destroyed, and even then it's not enough to change my mind about it. I know some Cyberse players liked using this card, but once again it was quickly outclassed as soon as Yusaku used another summoning method.

TRIVIA TIME!

According to Wikipedia, This card has the longest Monster effect text in TCG, with 130 words and 706 characters.

Next Up!
Let's break a bit from the Dragon Fetish shall we?

Deleted member 8583 · Jun 16, 2019

A bit OT, but the new Hakai cards for Chaos Impact look amazing:

https://ygorganization.com/sodragonicdiagramanddarkoccultism/

Going to make a deck with them.

Buddy1103 · Jun 16, 2019

was Yata-Garasu ever used in the anime? my friend kept destroying me with that card when i was a kid but i stopped watching the anime soon after. figured it was strong enough to be used in the anime.

Fj0823 · Jun 16, 2019

Buddy1103 said:
was Yata-Garasu ever used in the anime? my friend kept destroying me with that card when i was a kid but i stopped watching the anime soon after. figured it was strong enough to be used in the anime.

It appeared in a filler arc in the original series

Farrac · Jun 16, 2019

And Noah somehow lost.

Buddy1103 · Jun 16, 2019

Fj0823 said:
It appeared in a filler arc in the original series

that's cool! sucks it was just a filler arc though. the one card that got me to buy so many booster packs to try to find something to beat it lol.

Birdie · Jun 16, 2019

Did the Spirit Monsters originate in the show first?

Fj0823 · Jun 16, 2019

Birdie said:
Did the Spirit Monsters originate in the show first?

TCG First IIRC

Birdie · Jun 16, 2019

I remember them in the show dub after the fact but I wonder if in Japan they debuted in the anime.

Aaronrules380 · Jun 16, 2019

Gouki time next I suppose

TeddyShardik · Jun 16, 2019

I'm a simple man and I like my Six Samurais....even if there are more than six by now. :P

Also, Needle Worm is the best.

Fj0823 · Jun 16, 2019

TeddyShardik said:
I'm a simple man and I like my Six Samurais....even if there are more than six by now. :P

Also, Needle Worm is the best.

I mean there's the Six Samurai, The Legendary Six Samurai and the Secret Six Samurai

TeddyShardik · Jun 16, 2019

Fj0823 said:
I mean there's the Six Samurai, The Legendary Six Samurai and the Secret Six Samurai

Yeah, it's technically right...and we all know technically right is the best kind of right. :P

winstein · Jun 16, 2019

Speaking of Needle Worm, I am kind of disappointed that there aren't many duels where the loser lost from Deck Out. Granted, most of the time it's the antagonist/rival that attempted such a strategy, but it would be a nice change of pace if this strategy is done by a protagonist, including if they cause the opponent's strategy to backfire on them.

In fact, duel winners are incredibly rare and it's even rarer if the protagonist used it. The only one that I can think of is Exodia, which was only used once and no more (Exodia was used later but it's from antagonists). It's too bad that alternative win conditions are only used by non-protagonists, such as Destiny Board, Gimmick Puppet of Leo and Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes.

(Speaking of that, Vennominaga is going to be covered, right?)

Fj0823 said:
It appeared in a filler arc in the original series

Since I have watched that episode after I knew what Yata-Garasu does, I found it amusing that Noah never got to activate Yata-Garasu's effect, unlike his other Spirit monsters, even Inaba White Rabbit (that one attacks directly). I don't know if Noah even explained what Yata-Garasu ever did, and if he did, I won't be surprised if Yami were more concerned about it.

Thank you for reading.

Fj0823 · Jun 17, 2019

Gouki The Great Ogre
Generation 6: VRAINS
Users: Go Onizuka

Original Artwork:

Latest Artwork:

Go Onizuka is a character that exists I guess?

Much like Aoi/Blue Angel. Go is a character that only exists to be massively screwed by the writers at any point in time. Initially Go is a wrestler-like personality in VRAINS who much like Blue Angel, streams his matches to great success and popularity, Go is all about inspiring children and being an example to them...Until he runs into Playmaker, while initially an ally, Go's constant losses after he meets and joins Playmaker's in his quest for revenge against the Knights of Hanoi makes him more and more frustrated with himself, leading him to a dark path or something, I dunno, and neither did the writers. Thing is Go starts good then suddenly becomes a pathetic dick. While he is one of the goodd guys, he plays with the "Gouki" cards, WWE inspired cards that are all about swarming the field and generating resources for lots of Link Summons.

Among these cards, Go's ace is a LINK-3, EARTH, Warrior-Type Link Monster. "Gouki the Great Ogre"

And I don't like it. Great Ogre does away with the colorful masks and suits that make it's materials so unique, instead we get a generic gray demon with a spear, both of it's artworks have equally unintereting poses and backgrounds. I don't feel like talking about the design because it's so generic I feel I've seen this card a million times before. But I guess I kinda like it's horns and the purple muscles? That's all I got really. The card looks so boring it's a disservice to it's much more colorful and memorable Gouki wrestler main deck monsters.

Go is next to Aoi in the "Has a meta level deck and still loses every single time" club, as Gouki was one of the most popular decks at the start of the Link era, however this was more thanks to their ability to summon lots of monster and set up an "Extra Link" with cards such as "Firewall Dragon", and not because of Great Ogre itself. Great Ogre's main appeal is the fact that it unlocks three of your zones for Extra Deck summons, and it's requirement of 3 Gouki monsters (Or at least 2 if you're using Links which count as more than 1 material) are pretty easy to gather in such a swarm heavy deck. It's effect decreases the ATK of all monsters on the field by their DEF value, which won't hurt a Link deck as Link monsters have no DEF. And it will also protect itself from destruction by destroying a card it's link arrows point to instead. That's not bad for a card with a solid 2600 ATK but it's not really the reason why Gouki's became popular, if they ever summoned this card, it's because they literally ran out of any other options.

Gouki continue to receive support but unfortunately no Fusion/Synchro or Xyz support, as Go decided to ditch his Gouki card in favor of the absolutely terrible "Dinowrestlers" when he decided to become evil or something, I dunno.

Goukis good, Great Ogre not good.

TRIVIA TIME!

Go Onizuka's dub name is George Gore. That's right, his last name is Gore!

NOTE:
This marks the end of Gen 6 Round 2, and Round 2 in general.

Once again, I can't thank you enough for being here with me in this crazy crazy thread of the most beloved children's trading cards. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that all good things come to an end. I have decided that the upcoming Round 3 will be the last round of reviews for this thread, at least for a while. The reason for this is that I'm running out of "Well known" cards to review, and I feel no desire to dive deep into the TCG exclusive cards as well, they're not as fun as all this crazy cards some anime dude uses and are way less accesibles for all the newcomers here. Its best for me to take a break after round 3 and let some new cards and anime come and bring their stuff to the table.

But before we say goodbye to this thread for a while, there's 1 more round to go! There wil be CHAOS! there will be SACRED stuff! We will reach for the sky and even QUASARS in space! We will dive deep into nightmarish horrors and look at the creepiest of PUPPETS to the face! We will defeat all PREDICTIONS together and EXCEED all expectations!

But before we start, If there is 1 card you REALLY want to know more about, that you wish to know how to use today, or maybe you just remember fondly, let me know. As the hints above are really not all I want to do. I want to check out your favorites too!

Thanks to everyone posting in this thread, and everyone just reading it, even you, random lurker.

Mario Bilo · Jun 17, 2019

Fj0823 said:
Gouki The Great Ogre
Generation 6: VRAINS
Users: Go Onizuka

Original Artwork:

Latest Artwork:

Go Onizuka is a character that exists I guess?

Much like Aoi/Blue Angel. Go is a character that only exists to be massively screwed by the writers at any point in time. Initially Go is a wrestler-like personality in VRAINS who much like Blue Angel, streams his matches to great success and popularity, Go is all about inspiring children and being an example to them...Until he runs into Playmaker, while initially an ally, Go's constant losses after he meets and joins Playmaker's in his quest for revenge against the Knights of Hanoi makes him more and more frustrated with himself, leading him to a dark path or something, I dunno, and neither did the writers. Thing is Go starts good then suddenly becomes a pathetic dick. While he is one of the goodd guys, he plays with the "Gouki" cards, WWE inspired cards that are all about swarming the field and generating resources for lots of Link Summons.

Among these cards, Go's ace is a LINK-3, EARTH, Warrior-Type Link Monster. "Gouki the Great Ogre"

And I don't like it. Great Ogre does away with the colorful masks and suits that make it's materials so unique, instead we get a generic gray demon with a spear, both of it's artworks have equally unintereting poses and backgrounds. I don't feel like talking about the design because it's so generic I feel I've seen this card a million times before. But I guess I kinda like it's horns and the purple muscles? That's all I got really. The card looks so boring it's a disservice to it's much more colorful and memorable Gouki wrestler main deck monsters.

Go is next to Aoi in the "Has a meta level deck and still loses every single time" club, as Gouki was one of the most popular decks at the start of the Link era, however this was more thanks to their ability to summon lots of monster and set up an "Extra Link" with cards such as "Firewall Dragon", and not because of Great Ogre itself. Great Ogre's main appeal is the fact that it unlocks three of your zones for Extra Deck summons, and it's requirement of 3 Gouki monsters (Or at least 2 if you're using Links which count as more than 1 material) are pretty easy to gather in such a swarm heavy deck. It's effect decreases the ATK of all monsters on the field by their DEF value, which won't hurt a Link deck as Link monsters have no DEF. And it will also protect itself from destruction by destroying a card it's link arrows point to instead. That's not bad for a card with a solid 2600 ATK but it's not really the reason why Gouki's became popular, if they ever summoned this card, it's because they literally ran out of any other options.

Gouki continue to receive support but unfortunately no Fusion/Synchro or Xyz support, as Go decided to ditch his Gouki card in favor of the absolutely terrible "Dinowrestlers" when he decided to become evil or something, I dunno.

Goukis good, Great Ogre not good.

TRIVIA TIME!

Go Onizuka's dub name is George Gore. That's right, his last name is Gore!

NOTE:
This marks the end of Gen 6 Round 2, and Round 2 in general.

Once again, I can't thank you enough for being here with me in this crazy crazy thread of the most beloved children's trading cards. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that all good things come to an end. I have decided that the upcoming Round 3 will be the last round of reviews for this thread, at least for a while. The reason for this is that I'm running out of "Well known" cards to review, and I feel no desire to dive deep into the TCG exclusive cards as well, they're not as fun as all this crazy cards some anime dude uses and are way less accesibles for all the newcomers here. Its best for me to take a break after round 3 and let some new cards and anime come and bring their stuff to the table.

But before we say goodbye to this thread for a while, there's 1 more round to go! There wil be CHAOS! there will be SACRED stuff! We will reach for the sky and even QUASARS in space! We will dive deep into nightmarish horrors and look at the creepiest of PUPPETS to the face! We will defeat all PREDICTIONS together and EXCEED all expectations!

But before we start, If there is 1 card you REALLY want to know more about, that you wish to know how to use today, or maybe you just remember fondly, let me know. As the hints above are really not all I want to do. I want to check out your favorites too!

Thanks to everyone posting in this thread, and everyone just reading it, even you, random lurker.

Would you mind doing Silent Swordsman or Silent Magician for Gen 1 cards?

winstein · Jun 17, 2019

Fj0823

Hmm, one card only? There are quite a number of anime characters whose cards haven't been covered yet, but I see you are going to cover something from some of them. For example I can see that something from the Arcana Force might be covered (PREDICTIONS) and Gimmick Puppet (PUPPETS). At this point I am surprised that something from Infernity hasn't been covered since that archetype is one of the more effective ones when it had the second expansion (which does not require its Earthbound Immortal to succeed). If its coverage on Earthbound Immortal is sufficient to you, then that's OK.

Although I would prefer a Spell or Trap to be covered, I also haven't seen anything on Abyss Actors. I will give up my intended request for your words on Sawatari, since he's a pretty amusing character but he hasn't been covered as of now.

Thank you for reading.

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

I guess maybe Gandora deserves a spot? Or the Silent LV monsters, in general anything Yugi related. And some of the Haga bugs? I dunno, just some ideas from Gen One. Kaiba's XYZ monsters also come to mind, and some Jonouchi. Whatever you want to cover, really.

Btw, it seems like Go is back using Gouki!

Mandos · Jun 17, 2019

I'm kinda curious about the Planet series in action but if there were any specific one I wanted to know how it was in the actual card game it'd probably be Supreme Sun i think

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

I HATE rituals monsters. The only time I didn't hate rituals was in Duelist of the Roses. I don't understand why ritual monsters were never put in the extra deck zone, and forcing the monster to be used in the ritual to be on the field and not hand. It would be a worse version of Mask Change basically.

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

i-hate-u said:
I HATE rituals monsters. The only time I didn't hate rituals was in Duelist of the Roses. I don't understand why ritual monsters were never put in the extra deck zone, and forcing the monster to be used in the ritual to be on the field and not hand. It would be a worse version of Mask Change basically.

The Extra Deck is already quite packed as it is, and Rituals at the very least play a bit different when compared to the other ones.

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

Farrac said:
The Extra Deck is already quite packed as it is, and Rituals at the very least play a bit different when compared to the other ones.

Yeah now it is, but back then during gen 1? There was plenty of room.
If you don't have a deck built around them, they just brick your hand. Them being the extra-deck would make them splash-able.

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

i-hate-u said:
Yeah now it is, but back then during gen 1? There was plenty of room.
If you don't have a deck built around them, they just brick your hand. Them being the extra-deck would make them splash-able.

Well, yeah, I guess, but back during gen 1 there wasn't really a concept of Extra Deck. It was the Fusion Deck. I think the idea was that Fusion monsters didn't really exist as such, they were created on the spot when you combined two monsters, and that was represented with the cards being located outside the game (the Fusion deck) as a sort of recipe book. Ritual monsters were just some monsters that couldn't be summoned with a standard summoning method and you had to choose the right spell to call them. Not to mention that the game wasn't taken as seriously back then as it is now. It wasn't until Synchro that the Extra Deck was born.

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

Farrac said:
Well, yeah, I guess, but back during gen 1 there wasn't really a concept of Extra Deck. It was the Fusion Deck. I think the idea was that Fusion monsters didn't really exist as such, they were created on the spot when you combined two monsters, and that was represented with the cards being located outside the game (the Fusion deck) as a sort of recipe book. Ritual monsters were just some monsters that couldn't be summoned with a standard summoning method and you had to choose the right spell to call them. Not to mention that the game wasn't taken as seriously back then as it is now. It wasn't until Synchro that the Extra Deck was born.

I understand the semantics. I just think they'd be a lot more fun if they go into the extra deck and not bloat the main deck. I am having a hard time splashing Magician of Chaos into a traditional Dark Magician/timaeus deck for example.

Deleted member 179 · Jun 17, 2019

I need Lightpulsar Dragon and the Chaos deck in general. INJECT IT INTO MUH VRAINS

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

i-hate-u said:
I understand the semantics. I just think they'd be a lot more fun if they go into the extra deck and not bloat the main deck. I am having a hard time splashing Magician of Chaos into a traditional Dark Magician/timaeus deck for example.

I mean Magician of Chaos is a shit card regardless of whether it's a main deck or extra deck monster

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
Magician of Chaos

but he looks so cool

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

i-hate-u said:
but he looks so cool

I mean if you want to play dark magician in general I feel like you have to accept that you're going to be playing an overly expensive and mediocre deck, so feel free to use it if you want.

EMT0 · Jun 17, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
I mean Magician of Chaos is a shit card regardless of whether it's a main deck or extra deck monster

At least we've got retrains and flex options

You can Ritual Summon this card with "Chaos Form". You can only use each of these effects of "Magician of Black Chaos MAX" once per turn.
● If this card is Special Summoned: You can Tribute 1 monster; for the rest of this turn, your opponent cannot activate monster effects.
● When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: You can target 1 Spell in your GY; add it to your hand.

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

EMT0 said:
At least we've got retrains and flex options

That guy is flexing in the artwork alright.

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

EMT0 said:
At least we've got retrains and flex options

Black CHaos Max honestly seems really fucking bad. Like if it's tribute to stop monster effects worked on either turn it could be broken, but as is you can only use it on your own turn where it won't actually do much (especially since if I'm reading it right it doesn't work on continuous effects either since it only stops the activation of effects)

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

I HATE how they made Chaos Max a level 8.

Why? How can you even summon him in a Dark Magician build?

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

i-hate-u said:
I HATE how they made Chaos Max a level 8.

Why? How can you even summon him in a Dark Magician build?

It's a dumb decision, but the deck really isn't any worse off for not being able to summon it

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

So, considering we are less than a year away from the ending of VRAINS, what do you guys think will be the next gimmick? I always thought it would be Skill cards but they just unceremoniously dumped them into Speed Dueling so I dunno. I just hope it's not another Extra Deck Monster.

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

Farrac said:
So, considering we are less than a year away from the ending of VRAINS, what do you guys think will be the next gimmick? I always thought it would be Skill cards but they just unceremoniously dumped them into Speed Dueling so I dunno. I just hope it's not another Extra Deck Monster.

I think a cool gimmick would be something akin to the deckmasters from that one filler arc in the og series

EMT0 · Jun 17, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
Black CHaos Max honestly seems really fucking bad. Like if it's tribute to stop monster effects worked on either turn it could be broken, but as is you can only use it on your own turn where it won't actually do much (especially since if I'm reading it right it doesn't work on continuous effects either since it only stops the activation of effects)

I'm rusty, so please correct me where I'm wrong here. The thing that's restricting you from activating the first effect(negate opponent monster effects) during your opponent's turn is that you can't really Special Summon it on your opponent's turn without janky cards, right? It doesn't count as DM at any point so you can't use Eternal Soul, and there isn't really much DMOC support out there unless you wanna go all-in on things like COTH but that adds a lot of brick potential when you're already running Rituals and can't use things like pre-prep. I think the closest things to support DMOC has is Magical Contract Door and Dark Magic Veil

RIP

Aaronrules380 said:
It's a dumb decision, but the deck really isn't any worse off for not being able to summon it

The original MOBC was Lv. 8, so it's a consistency thing with the OG variant

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
I think a cool gimmick would be something akin to the deckmasters from that one filler arc in the og series

Actually, yes! That's what I wanted, like in Force of Will! I just figured Skill cards were supposed to fulfill that role.

Aaronrules380 · Jun 17, 2019

Farrac said:
Actually, yes! That's what I wanted, like in Force of Will! I just figured Skill cards were supposed to fulfill that role.

Yeah, but since skill cards seem exclusive to speed dueling and also seem harder to really sell in the same way as monster cards, I think something like the deckmaster concept is a better way to incorporate the concept

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
Yeah, but since skill cards seem exclusive to speed dueling and also seem harder to really sell in the same way as monster cards, I think something like the deckmaster concept is a better way to incorporate the concept

One can only hope

Thuddert · Jun 17, 2019

Always liked the dungeon dice part in the original series.

i-hate-u · Jun 17, 2019

I want them to incorporate field spells a creative way, where you can customize the each individual monster zone to suit the attribute/type of monster, kinda like in Duelist of the Roses. I also like the Deck Master idea where you can get bonus effects depending on your deck master, again kinda like in Duelist of the Roses and the Big 5 filler arc.

Wiseblade · Jun 17, 2019

I'm actually not ready for the Link era to end. Considering how drastic the change in Master Rule 4 is, whatever comes next needs to pull a GX and not rock the boat. I'd love to see a season revolving around Ritual Summoning since Konami seem to have finally figured out how to make them interesting without being Nekroz OP.

Voror · Jun 17, 2019

Well pendulam combined a monster and a spell so maybe next a combo of monster and trap?

As for cards left, are there any in the Galaxy series we haven't tackled? Or maybe any of the Dino cards?

Fj0823 · Jun 17, 2019

Silent Magician LV4
Generation 1: Duel Monsters
Users: Yugi Muto (As in, the actual Yugi Muto)
Artwork:

During the final season of Duel Monsters, Yugi Muto has to face the hardest challenge of his life. He must embark in a quest to release the spirit inside the Millenium Puzzle, part of the ritual involve defeating the Pharaoh in a Duel, so that the spirit can be humbled, accept that he can lose and finally pass on to the great beyond. For Yugi, this not only means losing his best friend and his partner in many many adventures, but finally deal with the fact that all this time, all those duels, he never won by himself. Yugi starts building a deck designed to finally defeat the Pharaoh and ascend as the true King of Games, something he truly wishes with all his heart doesn't happen.

This Deck is so distinctly different from the Pharaoh that it's actually impressive, Yugi's deck focus on the same themes as Yami Yugi's deck but with a more innocent spin on many them. Alongisde cars such as "Marshmallon" and "Gandora, The Dragon of Destruction", Yugi also showcased what would soon become one of the first attempts Konami made at new summoning methods, "LV Monsters", among which a little Level 4, LIGHT, Spellcaster-Type Effect Monster is one of the most famous, Silent Magician LV4!

Design wise, this card just showcases how different a "Yugi" Magician is from a "Yami Yugi" Magician, small, insecure looking, dressed in white robes and with a small wand. The card looks adorable and it's background of swirling wind effects around it makes me feel this magician is powering up to reach their new potential. Overall the design is very memorable and different from the Magician's I´ve reviewed so far, even if it share's some basic characteristics.

As I mentioned, this was a first shot at creating a completely new mechanic of "Level Up", basically LV Monsters such as Silent Magician LV4, will have a condition that once met, will allow you to summon a higher level version of the same monster, in this case, every time your opponent's draws a card, Silent Magician LV4 gets a counter on itself and a 500 ATK bonus, on the NEXT TURN after you've placed the 5th counter, you can upgrade to the cooler version "Silent Magician LV8"

Oh, She's a girl!, You know I never noticed that Silent Magician was female until I saw her level 8 art as a kid. Anyways, Silent Magician Lv8 has a really REALLY cool desgn and stands as one of my favorite magicians in this game, but unfortunately she is basically just a 3500 ATK beatstick that is inmune to spell effects, and think about it, you have to keep LV4 alive for 6 whole turns to ever bring out this card...and that's it? This is a problem that most LV monsters faced, the investment was simply not worth it. Trying to save LV Monsters from falling into obscurity, Konami eventually created "Level Up!"

This card let's you straight to the level and ignore all the hassle, but when you have to release a card that straight up says "Ignore the summon conditions of X", that's probably because the summon conditions of X were insane and no one would summon it by it's normal means. Unfortunately, this was not enough and LV Monsters never took off. As you probably might have noticed, Konami gave another try to this idea with Xyz monster and "Rank Up", with much better results thanks to the verstaility of Xyz monsters and the variety in "Rank-Up-Magic" cards as opposed to Level Up!

But where does this leave Silent Magician LV4 and LV8? Well thankully a specially good support card was released a couple of years ago, commonly known as the "Hot" version of Silent Magician and quickly rising in the ranks of many fan waifu lists, here's "Silent Magician"! yes ,just "Silent Magician"!

"Silent Magician" is actually a great card! It's art is a step up in detail from LV8, and the background looks amazing to me!, The sexier pose and dress don't go too far and manages to keep her elegance despite being sexed up. But what matters here are the actual effects, Silent Magician hits the field pretty easily, with just a tribute of a Spellcaster monster, she then will gain 500 ATK for each card in your hand which is nice and will also negate the activation of an opponent's spell once per turn. If she ever gets destroyed, she will allow you to summon LV4 or LV8 from your hand and deck, Igniring their summoning conditions.

This card exists only because LV8 is simply so unplayable that Ignoring it's summoning conditions is the only real way to actually summon her. You probably won't make a deck just to bring out LV8, if anything you'll shove LV8 in your deck to get the most of the "Silent Magician"

TRIVIA TIME!
In the anime this card has a very different color scheme.

Next Up!

We can't talk about Ritual Summon without the very first Ritual Monster shown in the series, can we?

Farrac · Jun 17, 2019

This thread never loses its luster.

Fj0823 · Jun 19, 2019

Black Luster Soldier
Generation 1: Duel Monsters
Users: Yugi Muto
Artwork:

Man, this card right here....where to start? This is probably one of the most beloved cards in this game, with such a rich history in the game that it's just a delight to review it. Here we go.

During his duel against Mai Valentine in the finals of Duelist Kingdom, Yugi, afraid of the spirit dwelling in the millenium puzzle after it almost killed Kaiba, refuses to hear his advice and instead fights alone against an onslaught of Harpies, with his back against the wall after Mai summoned "Harpie's Pet Dragon". The spirit and Yugi finally have a heart to heart, they decide to work together as one and bet it all in old strategy the spirit knows about called the "Black Luster Ritual", they put all their faith in the next card they draw...and faith rewards them dearly.

Yugi performs the first Ritual Summon in the franchise! Keep that scene fresh in your mind because that scene has inspired so many things we'll be talking about soon it's not even funny. The card Yugi draws is "Black Luster Ritual" the first Ritual Spell card revealed for the game.

With it, the Power of "Gaia The Fierce Knight" and "Kuriboh" open the gateway to chaos, summoning a brand new warrior to the field. A level 8, EARTH, Warrior-Type Ritual Monster, "Black Luster Soldier"

This card's artwork is so simple, yet so striking, there's something about YGO's early artwork that makes it so memorable in it's simplicity, this is just a knight in a "badass" pose and still the armor design is so immensely unique with the eagle chestplate and the clash of dark blue and gold, the horned helmet, the red hair, the gold plated shield and the curved, dented sword...It all blends together to make it feel like this is truly the ultimate Knight to roam a middle earth inspired world.The light blue background evokes water, and gives the image a sense of peacefulness, this warrior is calm and confident in it's abilities, and you should be too. Fantastic design. 10/10.

As for the game, Black Luster Soldier is not a great card, it's just an effectless Ritual Monster, and you know how hard to pull Rituals are. This card was not worth it when it came out, even if it did had a great 3000 ATK value. It's way too hard to summon for so little in return.

This card however became the inspiration for one of the most ridiculous cards to ever grace this game. In the infamous, game breaking expansion "Invasion of Chaos" and the design for this card was reused in a new version "Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning"

This card is just so easy to summon and has such devastating effects that the game as we knew it at that point changed forever. By banishing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK Monster in your graveyard this legendary warrior could drop without any tribute, for 3000 ATK, the ability to banish an opponent's monster OR attack again after destroying a monster in battle. At the time this cards released, those effects were simply too powerful, to the point of almost being invincible if they managed to hit the field. This card was so overpowered that it was locked in the banlist for many many years. It is said that this card alongside many other cards in "Invasion of Chaos" created the need for a banlist.

With it's powerful version banned, Black Luster Soldier only had it's terrible ritual to fall back on, thankfully Generation 5 and it's "Everyone is here!" mentality came in, and the expansion "Dimensions of Chaos" did everything in it's power to buff this card to new heights making even the OG Ritual a card that could change the tides of a game.

First, they decided to bring together this card with "Gaia the Fierce Knight" as a theme based on it's summon scene, releasing two new version of "Gaia" designed to hit the field quickly and that let you search for "Black Luster Soldier" cards if they are tributed.

And since "Kuriboh" was also used in the scene of it's first summon, two new versions of Kuriboh which make ritual summoning easier for the deck were released.

But that's not all, a card based on the "Gateway to Chaos" Gaia and Kuriboh go through in the summon scene was created letting you search for both "Black Luster Soldier" and "Gaia the Fierce Knight" cards

Not only that, but if enough counters are placed on this card by having monsters on either side of the field sent to the grave, you will be able to search for a ritual spell.

And since Black Luster Soldier's ritual spell might be a tad obsolete, a new versions of the Ritual Spell plus an upgraded version of the original ritual were also released.

"Super Soldier Synthesis" can ritual summon with cards in your deck! and "Super Soldier Ritual" can be activated from the GRAVEYARD! By banishing it, 1 LIGHT and 1 Dark Monster card from the grave you can special summon any "Black Luster Soldier Ritual monster in your hand, ignoring it's summoning condition.

And what if I told you that there's 2 new LIGHT and DARK cards that make your Rituals gain effects if they are used as materials and let you search for cards if they are banished? Beginning Knight and Evening Twilight Knight are here!

If you use them for a ritual they grant your good ol OG BLS with all the effects "Envoy of the Beginning" has and more! And if you banish them with the effect of "Super Soldier Ritual" they will search for a new Ritual Monster and effect from your deck!

And if that's not enough Envoy of the Beginning has been unbanned and he also comes with new versions to the party, plus a trap cards that lets you swap them ignoring their summoning conditions, search for them and eve negate anything your opponent might throw at you!

And finally, they got their own "hand trap" of all things!

Jesus Christ....talk about supporting a fan favorite card, I don't think it's even possible to give more love to this card...Oh wait, here's a Link Monster.

Black Luster Soldier the Chaos Warrior
3 monsters with different names
Your opponent cannot target this card that was Link Summoned using a Level 7 or higher monster as material with card effects, also it cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: You can activate 1 of these effects.
● This card gains 1500 ATK.
● This card can make a second attack during each Battle Phase of your next turn.
● Banish 1 card on the field.

So yeah, when I say beloved, this card is BELOVED. It's got a decent deck that might not win you many tournaments, but has eough support to make the OG card do things above and beyond what it could when it was released.

Merging "Black Luster Soldier" and "Gaia the Fierce Knight" into a single warrior deck was genius. I hope for all of this cards to hit Duel Links one day, as Duel Links Format is way more Ritual Friendly.

Amazing Art, Great stream of support. How can you not love it ?

TRIVIA TIME!
This card's original name "Chaos Soldier" is the reason why most of the support works with LIGHT and DARK monsters, a staple of the "Chaos" theme

And our very own SGJin contributed with an amazing piece of trivia I completely forgot about!

SGJin said:
Additional Trivia!

A Normal Monster variant of Black Luster Soldier was the first prize card for the first international ygo tournament in 1999. It is a one of a kind card and was printed on a steel plate and was put on auction for 10 million USD (althought I dont think it sold).

NEXT UP!

In this thread, I review Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards [Now reviewing Generation 7!]

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